The invention relates to a method for the operation of network management systems, wherein the same values of attributes relating to an object are presented to a first and a second manager.
In accordance with the principles of a management network, also referred to as TMN principles (TMN: Telecommunications Management Network), a plurality of management layers exist for the management of a communication system—such as, for example, of a mobile radio communication system—wherein a layer with the exception of the topmost and bottommost layer can have a double function, namely a manager function and an agent function. In the managing system, every level apart from the bottommost level performs a manager function for the underlying level. In the managed system, every level apart from the topmost level is accorded an agent function for the next higher layer.
Managers start operations for network monitoring and control by sending so-called “requests”, which are performed by agents, and receive corresponding so-called “responses” from the agents. Elements of the telecommunications network, also referred to as resources of the telecommunications network, which perform the role of an agent in a TMN hierarchy detect relevant so-called “events”, such as e.g. alarms, generate corresponding so-called “notifications” and transmit them in the form of so-called “event reports” to managers in order to enable efficient network management.
The network management can comprise, inter alia, fault management and/or configuration management and/or security management and/or accounting management and/or performance management. The network management is intended to provide suitable mechanisms for information distribution and management, such that a comprehensive picture of the state of the network is available as necessary and the individual elements of the telecommunications network can be efficiently monitored and configured.
The manager-agent communication takes place via so-called management interfaces or manager-agent interfaces which are characterized in an object-oriented environment by a communication protocol, such as e.g. CMIP (Common Management Information Protocol) according to ITU-T X.711 or CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) and by an object model. Object models serve for modeling resources of the telecommunications network, said resources are classified in object classes during the modeling.
Such interfaces exist for example between the network element management level, on the one hand, and the network element level, on the other hand. An example of network devices in this manager-agent interface is the operation and maintenance centers (OMC: Operation and Maintenance Center) on the part of the network element management level, and on the part of the network element level devices such as e.g. base stations of the base station system (BSS: Base Station System) of a GSM mobile radio network, or base stations of other communications networks, for example node B's of a UMTS mobile radio network (UMTS: Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) or radio access points of a WLAN system (WLAN: Wireless Local Area Network) for example in accordance with one of the IEEE 802.11 standards.
Management interfaces or manager-agent interfaces also exist between the network management level, on the one hand, and the network element management level, on the other hand. One example of network devices for this manager-agent interface is the network management centers (NMC: Network Management Center) on the part of the network management level and the operation and maintenance centers (OMC: Operation and Maintenance Center) on the part of the network element management level e.g. in said GSM or some other mobile radio or telecommunications network.